Three of the five contestants in the Jackpot Mule Race round the third barrel on the first lap of the three lap race Thursday at Maury County Park. Stuart Vitatoe of Albany, Ky., right, won the race. (Staff photo by Susan W. Thurman)

Mule Day board member Dave Skillington holds a 1950’s copy of Life Magazine open to a photo of the Mule Day Queen Sue Morrison, King Mule and Tennessee Governor Gordon Browning as he and Mule Day Queen 1950 Sue Morrison Dunnebacke share the moment following a recent Kiwanis Club meeting. Skillington’s topic was the 1950 Mule Day celebration, which was the year his father, Charlie Skillington, rode to the State Capitol on his mule Headline Nell to ask Gov. Gordon Browning to be the grand marshal of that year’s parade. Dunnebacke brought some of her memorabilia, which included the magazine, to display for club members. (Staff photo by Susan W. Thurman)

Nate Payne of Columbia draws a caricature of Hunter Harris, 10, Friday at the Mule Day Arts and Craft Show. Hunter, one of the six grandchildren of Jamie Bailey of Culleoka, was the first of the six to have his done.

Former Mule Day Queen 1998 Courtney Stinson Misener pauses with two of her sons, Liam, 2, and Beckett, 5, at the end of the kids obstacle course following Beckett’s run through it Friday at Maury County Park. Misener now lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with her husband and three boys. She said the last time she was here was four years ago when all the queens were invited back to ride in the parade. “This is Beckett’s first Mule Day that he will be able to remember,” she said.

Aidan McShurley, 8, gobbles up his pancakes at the Culleoka Lions Club Annual Mule Day Pancake Breakfast Saturday at the Memorial Building. McShurley is from Whitehouse and was attending Mule Day with relatives from Columbia. (Staff photo by Susan W. Thurman)

The 2014 Mule Day Parade grand marshal Joe DiPietro, University of Tennessee president, pets one of a team of mules as he arrives at Maury County Park to start his Mule Day celebration. DiPietro was taken on a tour of the park and was taken through the old arena during the Driving Mule Show where he greeted the crowd.

While elsewhere there rises the unmistakable murmur of a crowd, the hum of machinery and engines, there aren't many sounds coming from the main Mule Day arena Friday afternoon — except maybe the occasional rustle of a log dragging the ground or a small burst of polite applause.

A water-drop decorated sign gives Mule Day equine participants instructions about where their livestock can and cannot be during the weekend's events in Maury County Park as visitors use umbrellas to keep the weather from totally dampening their day.